Presented by Duo Contraste. Elder Hall. 12 Mar 2016
Duo Contraste is an accomplished, prize winning and talented piano duo comprising Macarena Zambranao and Callum Gunn, both postgraduate students at the Elder Conservatorium of Music. Their concert Danza Y Magia (Spanish for dance and magic) really hit its straps after the interval when they delight the audience with performances of Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Saint-Saën’s Danse Macabre, and de Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance. It’s almost improper to say these three pieces were bookended by Brahms’ mighty Sonata in F minor for two Pianos and Ravel’s La Valse, but for a Fringe event they were probably the ‘odd men out’, though immensely enjoyable nonetheless.
It is an awesome sight to see two full size concert grand pianos on stage with the gentle curves of their cases gently folding into each other like two lovers whose bodies easily fit together. It is quite another thing to hear and see them played together by two class pianists who have a deep understanding of the music and of each other: in concert Zambranao and Gunn inhabit the same musical world, and it’s wonderful.
The Brahms Sonata began its life as a string quintet, but was abandoned by the composer after strong criticism by the leading violinist of the day. As a duet for piano it has everything: grandeur, passion, lyricism, and opportunity for pianistic brilliance. Zambranao and Gunn exquisitely draw out the cantabile lullaby nature of the andante second movement, and execute the opposing rhythms in the finale, driving them inexorably home to the final climactic chord.
Dukas’ The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a symphonic poem by Paul Dukas, and is certainly the most popular and performed of his works; featured in Walt Disney’s 1940 animated film Fantasia. Dukas also transcribed it for two pianos, but one is of the view that a lot of its original color is lost. That aside, Zambranao and Gunn execute it with style and finesse and relish the more turbulent sections.
De Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance is a movement from his ballet The Bewitched Love and was popularized by his own piano arrangement for two hands. One is not aware of the origin of the arrangement for two pianos and four hands presented by Duo Contraste but it “works”. The dialoged between the two pianos is entertaining throughout and Zambranao and Gunn don’t miss a beat as they swap between primo and secondo and conquer the difficult rhythms and occasional break-neck speed without putting a finger wrong! Similarly the arrangement of Saint-Saën’s Danse Macabre is full of musical and pianistic interest and was an audience favourite.
Originally conceived as a ballet, Ravel’s La Valse is usually heard as a concert work, and, sadly, very rarely as a reduction for two pianos, which was written by Ravel himself. There is also a solo piano transcription, but it is incredibly difficult and is rarely performed. The two piano version is also difficult but accessible to skilled musicians, and again Zambranao and Gunn conquer its intricacies and make the piece sing. Often thought of as an homage to the waltz, the composition essentially comprises a sequence of waltzes each with its own unique personality. Some shout waltz at you, while others are more intricate and the 3/4 waltz rhythm is not always immediately apparent but rather gradually revealed. The arrangement effectively imitates the range of instrumental colors of the original orchestration and Zambranao and Gunn confidently manage the dazzling array of splintered yet elegant modulating themes, stormy bass lines, dazzling ascending and descending glissandi (bravo Callum Gunn!), and the final tempestuous danse macabre coda.
Duo Contraste is an uber talented duo. Here’s hoping their partnership plays on for many more years to come.
Kym Clayton
When: 12 Mar
Where: Elder Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Festival. Thebarton Theatre. 12 Mar 2016
At the outset, you wouldn’t think there was anything to link the two bands.
But there is. Both Sun O))) and Magma are heady sounding bands with a strong focus on gripping bass structures, counter balanced by delicious lifts in percussion and wind instruments which work to take each bands musical output in the direction of heart felt, hard driving ballad territory.
Magma opened the night and powered their way through a 90 minute set in which Christian and Stella Vander’s heart rendering vocals, coming off warm yet really gutsy percussion arrangements by Stella Vander and Isabelle Feuilebois, had their fans enthralled immediately.
Magma exuded unstoppable passion, song for song. Even in the lightest numbers, it’s impossible for them to pull back in any way. They must cry out, they must celebrate as loudly and as distinctively as they can across instrumentation; they work extremely hard to reach an audiences’ heart.
Sun O))) are another beast all together. Band members, dark robed, utilised a superb light show augmented by ice smoke. Here was a band that went to the greater depths of ballad-fuelled emotional darkness, rendered in body ripping, rumbling, high decibel surging bass guitar and keyboards so perfectly arranged in orchestration they elicited an extraordinary varied line in composition that even had place for the lilting notes of trombone in the arrangement.
Sun O))) are masters of theatre. Vocalist Attila Cishar’s sweeping hand gestures enhanced his rolling, vibrato voice as it rose and fell with the sonic waves of sound pouring from Stephen O’Malley’s guitar and Greg Anderson’s synth. Here was an operatic dark God’s mourning, celebration, and longing in full, mesmerising play holding the audience in complete attention, gripped by the loudest music you could encounter, yet filled with hypnotising darkly rendered hooks.
David O’Brien
When: 12 March
Where: Thebarton Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Presented by Marianna Grynchuk. Pilgirm Church. 12 Mar 2016
In her programme notes, Marianna Grynchuk observes that the “[piano] sonata is truly ageless and limitless. It remains one of the principal means of taking the listener on an exhilarating, captivating and thought provoking journey”, and course she is right. The programming for her recital, The Sonata: Reflections of Life, was indeed a journey that traversed two-hundred-and-ten years of compositional styles, commencing with Mozart and finishing with Nigel Westlake. We heard forms ranging from strict classical, through romanticism to contemporary free-form.
Grynchuk is an exceptionally talented young pianist who has performed extensively and won multiple awards. Her technique is superb and she is at her best when exploring lyricism. Grynchuk brought out the playfulness of Mozart’s Sonata in B flat K333 and excelled with the lyricism of the andante cantabile second movement but perhaps did not bring out fully the tension that exists in the occasional dissonance.
For her second piece, Grynchuk chose Beethoven’s Sonata No. 23 in F minor, the so called Appassionata. Czerny once famously said that “…Beethoven’s compositions must be played differently from anyone else's. It is not easy to express this difference in words." I believe this to be true, and all dozen or so recordings by different pianists of the Beethoven sonatas that I own are all fundamentally different in their approach.
Grynchuk’s approach to the Appassionata is also different, and I suspect will be different the next time she performs it. Beethoven’s piano music is like that – it is open to so much interpretation. Next time she might alter the dynamic balance between the left and right hands, so that the upper octaves of the piano are not overwhelmed by the lowest notes of the instrument, something that Beethoven was so keen to explore and often at great volume! This was especially evident in the andante second and allegro third movements, and also had the effect of occasionally dislocating the synchronization between left and right hands.
One of Grynchuk’s teachers, the celebrated Eleanora Silvan, is on the ‘Liszt list’, meaning that Liszt taught the teacher of her teacher’s teacher! Some of this heritage came out during Grynchuk’s performance of Liszt’s mighty Sonata in B minor. It’s a brute to play, demands strong technique and takes no hostages. It is emotionally charged and needs to be played with deep understanding. Grynchuk did that and her performance was a highlight of the concert. As the final transcendent note faded away, it took the audience a full ten seconds to return from where they had been transported to offer up enthusiastic and well-deserved applause.
Nigel Westlake’s Piano Sonata No. 1 is in an altogether different style, and its inclusion in the program rounded out the journey from classicism to modernism. It lacks the tonal structures of ‘conventional’ sonatas and in many senses might be considered to be three stand-alone pieces that independently explore a myriad of atonal, minimalist and improvisatory musical ideas. It is the sort of composition that is best appreciated through live performance – it’s exciting to watch – and Grynchuk was worth watching.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Pilgrim Church
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Festival. Presented by Musica Viva. Adelaide Town Hall. 11 Mar 2016
Voyage to the Moon is a happy collaboration between Musica Viva and the Victorian Opera. It is the most recent addition to the genre of ‘pasticcio’ opera in which selected arias and musical numbers from pre-existing operas are joined together to create an altogether different narrative. The so called ‘juke box’ musical (such as Mama Mia) is in some ways a modern version of pasticcio, which has been around since the mid eighteenth century.
Voyage to the Moon is the brain child of the celebrated Michael Gow (writer and director), Phoebe Briggs (musical director), and the late and great Alan Curtis (musical arrangement) who sadly passed away during the development phase of the opera and was succeeded by Calvin Bowman. The result is a thoroughly entertaining chamber opera that has been warmly received around the country. This performance is featured as part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts and played to a near capacity audience in the iconic and stately Adelaide Town Hall.
In short the story is a fantasy about unrequited love. Orlando (sung by Emma Matthews) is rejected by his sweetheart and is driven insane. His friend Astolfo (Sally-Anne Russell) tries to comfort him, and Magus (Jeremy Kleeman), a wise magician, also intervenes and takes Astolfo on a journey to the moon – the home of lost things – to find Orlando’s missing reason. Before Astolfo can complete his mission he needs to convince the fierce Guardian of the Moon, Selena (also sung by Matthews), that Orlando is worth saving. Astolfo offers to sacrifice himself to save Orlando but is spared by Selena. On returning to Earth, Orlando, who is still enraged, seeks to fight Astolfo but the magus intervenes and returns Orlando’s reason to him, and they all live happily ever after.
With so much high emotion one might have wished for more demonstrative acting from the cast, but forsooth there was not! Instead, what we got was a lot of polite posturing, stand and sing, and stares that were double charged with spiteful meaning. But hey, its opera and our disbelief is meant to be suspended!
But, the singing! Oh the singing was divine!
After a tightly controlled start, in which Matthews in particular seemed to be coming to grips with the acoustic of the immense Town Hall auditorium that can be unkind to some vocalists, the piece hit its straps with Kleeman’s first aria Now We Ride Bravely by Handel. Kleeman, who is barely twenty-five years old, has a booming lyrical bass baritone voice that easily fills the auditorium with lush tones that are equally strong at both ends of his register. Top stuff! He can moon walk as well, and has an actor’s flair. Matthews was especially impressive in many difficult recitatives and made it patently obvious why she is one of Australia’s best singers. As the Guardian of the Moon she loomed larger than life. Russell sang Astolfo beautifully, demonstrating bel cato accomplishment.
The setting was minimalist, and it didn’t need to be anything different. Lighting was stylish and empathetic, and the costuming was lavish. The on-stage ensemble of seven was expertly led by Briggs from the harpsichord.
Voyage to the Moon is a success story and deserves to be widely seen and enjoyed.
Kym Clayton
When: 11 & 12 Mar
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
Zephyr Quartet. The Space Theatre. 7 March
Surrealism and its mysteries are timeless. Because the joy of surrealism is the magic it creates from things ordinary, which is always timeless.
Zephyr Quartet’s Exquisite Corpse is a richly beautiful work, redolent of sounds and images completely within the spirit of the original game of collaboration of the same name. An artist gives to another artist the end piece of a work they’ve created. That artist uses this piece to create their bit of work, passing on the end of that creation to another artist. Repeat.
Founder of Surrealism André Breton’s words, quoted in the program concerning the game, clearly note Exquisite Corpse’s content, “could not be begotten by one mind alone, and that they were endowed, in a much greater measure, with a power of drift that poetry cannot value too highly.”
Twelve pieces of music, accompanied by a fabulously Robert Crumb style series of fantastical animations, washed over the audience in an hour seemingly too short to contain the rich depths of musical and visual inventiveness gifted to the audience.
Drift and poetry says it all. Belinda Gehlert, Emily Tulloch, Jason Thomas and Hilary Kleinig play as artists in thrall to each composer’s especial musical expression, managing deftly to give full life to each piece as the work passes from one composer to the next, no matter the great number of pieces there are.
Combined with Jo Kerlogue and Luku Kukuku’s ravishing animations, a profoundly rich and dense visual, emotional poetry of hope, decay, resurrection, darkness, perversion and enlightenment offers itself up.
The wistful grace of Zephyr Quartet’s playing belies the very great depths of darkness some of these pieces of music reach, amplified often by the animations. Yet, it is darkness imbued with a wonderfully delicately cerebral, considered and romantic expression, gently and carefully expressed in each passage of cello and violin they were written for. Hence the contrast with the brightest, quickest works is all the more apparent, magnifying, alike to a microscope, the very many layers within the work as a whole.
David O’Brien
When: 7, 8 March
Where: The Space Theatre
Bookings: Closed